Thursday, July 19, 2012

In Honor of "Restaurant Week" in Fresno

I'll admit, I'm somewhat of a reverse snob when it comes to restaurants, I think more people should be eating at small mom n pop type places as opposed to expensive northside trendy joints. The restaurant bigwigs in this town don't need my money and they probably don't want it frankly. My husband and I don't have the "right" clothes and we don't drive the "right" kind of car for places like that. We don't look like the kind of people who normally eat on the northside, even when we have the money to do it. Don't get me wrong, I like interesting food in a "nice" atmosphere and I have paid big money to get that. But I also expect big service for my big money, and frankly it doesn't exist much on the northside. I also expect a decent amount of food for my money, not some precious little miniatures artfully arranged in the middle of a too big plate.

I prefer small places in dicey parts of town, run by real people whose livelihoods depend on my dollars. People who work hard for their money, people who don't open restaurants because they're bored, people who don't hire management companies and PR people to run things for them. People who are genuinely glad you stopped in. People who learned to cook from moms and grandpas, and other family members. These places usually have food that is fairly ethnic or downhome and come in decent portions. The "atmosphere" isn't always great, because these people work with what they have...and they might not have time for you right away because usually the owner is also the cook and the waitstaff... but its REAL and REAL GOOD.

I've found good food all over Fresno, but I feel like the best food is that served with love and determination and sincerity. Even when the owner or staff is grumpy because they're tired from working so hard, I prefer places like this to ones where I'm treated with fake love because the waiter thinks I'll tip better if he kisses my ass.

So this "Restaurant Week", go to some "real" restaurants for a change ,and help stimulate the economy of some "real" folks. Believe me, they will appreciate it more than you know.

7 comments:

i would imagine that the restaurants taking part in restaurant week would consider themselves hardworking, dependent on your money, having learned to cook from their parents and what not. it seems odd that the stance taken is that because there are some higher end restaurants on there that therefore it's not "real" people being encountered, making and serving food.

i like restaurant week because it does expose some restaurants, or remind me of others. and, i like fixed price menus. i'll probably try out someplace new during it.

btw, i would also venture that some of the places taking part in restaurant week are in "dicey parts of town."

On their "official" list, its all high end places except for Sal's...which I will say fits my bill for "real food" made by "real people"... And believe me, I know some of these owners...they are richies who change restaurants like some people change clothes and while their staff works their asses off, THEY don't do a thing except hog the spotlight.

you've completely missed the point of the post... I've said IN the post, that I've been to expensive restaurants...I'm not against it, but I just think there isn't enough attention paid by the media to the mom n pop places. All the media goes to the trendy expensive places, whose owners lives don't depend on their failure or success.